


Perfect

by saramcm



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: First Date, M/M, hella cute tbh, is this how tags work, stone face tyler being stone face tyler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-09-17 13:06:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9325496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saramcm/pseuds/saramcm
Summary: "Sometimes he remembered being the guy with a small channel whose connection to Mark was being the backflip guy, and when he got back to his present reality Ethan had to physically keep from laughing out of pure glee."Prompt: Crankiplier, first date.





	

Oh god, was he nervous. Ethan had been standing in front of the mirror for quite some time now, fiddling with his hair every thirty seconds in between wondering whether what he had chosen to wear was appropriate. _Does this shirt look good? Maybe I should have gotten my hair cut and dyed for this. Would that be too much? Probably. Then Tyler would never let me live it down. I’m Tyler, and I wish I had cool hair so I make fun of others’._ Ethan snorted at his own thoughts, which seemed to sober him up a little. He was being an idiot, wasn’t he? It wasn’t like it would be the first time Mark and him ate a meal together.

Oh, but this time it would be significantly different, wouldn’t it?

It was a little bit surreal to think that he’d gotten to this place to begin with. Here, in LA, at Mark’s request. Sometimes he remembered being the guy with a small channel whose connection to Mark was being the backflip guy, and when he got back to his present reality Ethan had to physically keep from laughing out of pure glee. His channel was growing; his videos were his job. And Mark… Mark had asked him out on a date.

Ethan was pretty damn sure it was difficult _not_ to develop an enormous crush on the guy. He’d figured it was only a silly thing and would go away soon, though. His (flawed) logic was that spending more time with Mark would get rid of his infatuation and replace it with friendship. Boy, was Ethan wrong. It was all Mark’s fault, really, for having an even more striking personality when the camera wasn’t rolling, for showing how caring he was in tiny little gestures that you’d only pick up on if you spent enough time with him, and for being ten times more attractive in person. No need to place blame, though--- Not when, somehow, he’d grown fond of Ethan as well.

They’d been flirting back and forth, all in good fun. Ethan thought none of it, because he never even questioned whether his feelings could be returned. Mark was technically his boss, anyway, so that made Ethan push away from the thought even further. And then it happened, and it was as smooth as you’d expect it would be, coming from Mark: not smooth at all. Because really, they had shared countless meals and hung out thousands of times. When Mark leaned into the back of Ethan’s chair and asked him to get dinner, Ethan shrugged and nodded without ever stopping his editing job. And then there was silence. And then Mark was repeating himself.

“I mean, I’d like to have _dinner_ with you.”

“I heard you, Mark. Where do you wanna go?”

There was a frustrated sigh from behind him. Ethan still didn’t look away from the computer, not until Tyler walked past the doorway and intervened. “A date, you idiot. He means he wants to take you out. Can’t you people do _anything_ without me?”

Oh. _Oh._

“Okay. I mean, yes. Yes, I’d like to have dinner. Definitely.”

That made Mark turn back around from where he was ready to chase Tyler down the hallway. He paused, pretended like all that awkwardness hadn’t just ensued and grinned. He walked backwards out of the room, throwing up some finger guns and making Ethan laugh. _Then_ Mark chased Tyler down the hallway.

And here Ethan was, finally giving up on messing with his hair and accepting that his choice of outfit was an alright one. The doorbell rang and he used it as an excuse to get away from the mirror before he could change his mind again.

“I’ll get it,” Ethan called out to the others on the way to the front door, only to be greeted by Mark himself when he opened. How extra do you have to be to ring your own doorbell? “… Okay?”

“Shut up, I wanted to do this properly,” Mark argued before clearing his throat. “Hi. You look great. Ready?”

Ethan had to grin. “Yep. Let me get my phone.”

For a while during the drive to the restaurant, Ethan felt awkward. Every first date topic of conversation wouldn’t work out, since he couldn’t ask questions he already knew the answers to. Finally, Ethan cleared his throat and asked where they were going, and Mark started telling him about the restaurant and why he liked it so much. Ethan instantly felt relief. From then on the conversation just seemed to flow as it usually did, with jokes and quips and laughter.

There wasn’t anything significantly different from this time they had dinner to the others, aside from the fact that they weren’t eating fast food. Ethan could understand why Mark had chosen this place and it was quickly becoming one of his favorite restaurants in LA (not that he knew many at this point. Maybe one day he’d get to take Mark to his favorite place back home). The service was great and the food was even better, if that was possible. Upon paying the bill Ethan was forced to agree to letting Mark pay because he was the one asking. Mark told him they’d do it the other way around next time and Ethan was too giddy to argue any further.

“Are you tired?” Mark asked him on his way to the car. Ethan shook his head. “Good. I wanna take you somewhere.”

They wound up near the beach, close enough to that the air smelled like salt and they could hear the waves. It was a quiet street at this hour, with a few people jogging by the beach or walking just as they were, and with faint noise from nearby restaurants and cafés. Ethan enjoyed the comfortable silence as they walked; LA seemed so busy all the time, the quiet felt nice--- Though he was the one to drag Mark along when he spotted a gelato stand.

The two of them sat on a bench and faced the ocean, eating and talking, and talking, and talking. It was so easy to talk to Mark, to babble about living in LA, to thank him for the millionth time for the opportunity he gave Ethan and for the continuous support. And for the millionth time, Mark insisted there was nothing to thank him for.

“I like being surrounded by people I like. Especially when it comes to work, it keeps me grounded. And I believed in you. Still do.”

“I know. It’s just,” Ethan paused, took in a deep breath holding it in, looking over the beauty of the ocean and the hues of pink and purple in the sky. He finally laughed, just because he was so damn happy. “Perfect.”

Mark smiled at Ethan’s side, his gaze in the distance as well. His hand inched closer to Ethan’s on the bench and he felt it being grabbed gently. “Yeah. I know.”

Ethan’s hand didn’t leave Mark’s until they got to the car again. And when they got home, Mark held his hand again all the way to Ethan’s bedroom door. Ethan laughed when Mark used the ‘doing it properly’ argument again; it was so damn endearing, he couldn’t get over it.

“I really did have a great time, Mark. Thanks.”

Mark shook his head. “Hopefully great enough that you’ll wanna do it again?” He paused. “And maybe that I deserve a kiss?”

Ethan had to laugh again. He was so fucking happy, he wasn’t sure how he hadn’t exploded yet. He leaned up to give Mark a brief, chaste kiss, and was pleased to see he still wasn’t exploding. His heart was, though. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

After walking into his bedroom and closing his door behind him, Ethan had to take a few seconds to get over the smile Mark flashed him. He threw himself on his bed, smiling and laughing like an insane person. His phone beeped.

‘Let me clarify, are you officially my boyfriend now?’

“Yes!” Ethan yelled out with laughter in his voice, heard a _‘Whoo!’_ from Mark somewhere in the house, and Tyler groaning that he was already fed up with this.

Perfect, indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, and thank you for reading! 
> 
> This is my first work in YouTuber fanfic but I've recently fell into the Crankiplier abyss so here we have it. It definitely turned out longer than I wanted it to, but I got carried away.
> 
> I'm taking requests for short-ish fanfics like this. Please refer to [this post](http://kacatshi.tumblr.com/post/155803054399/remember-when-i-did-ficlet-requests-im-back-at) on tumblr.  
> Sorry for any mistakes, I didn't proof read it. Feel free to point them out nicely.
> 
> Comments and kudos are always greatly appreciated ♥


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